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Show WALL STREET VIEWS By Jwm McMusSn, Kncit Ornery NEW YORK A new wrinkle ' in government financing will probably develop in connection with the Tennessee valley authority's author-ity's purchase of Commonwealth tt Southern's properties In It area. The T V A has ne funds of its own svelleble to cover the purchase. pur-chase. Originally it was expected to borrow the money from the RFC But now It appears that it will raise the necessary cash by selling its own bonds guaran-teed guaran-teed by the U. & treasury to the public. The agency has authority, under aa amendment to the T V A set, to Issue up to 130,000.000 In bonds for the acquisition of utility properties. The balance of the (80.000.000 purchase price for Tennessee Electric Power will be paid by Tennessee municipalities, which can get the money from Jesse Jones if they don't want to sell bonds themselves. Bonds sold by T V A would not be included in the treasury's obligations, obli-gations, even though they would be contingent liabilities of the treasury. Thus the practice grows of minimising the federal debt by having independent agencies do thsir own financing a neat device, de-vice, though somewhat misleading, mislead-ing, whereby the administration hopes to avoid a showdown with congress on the debt Hmit Moreover, More-over, it the T V A retsee money directly Instead of through the more leeway to devote its funds to other purposes. As ws prophesied, the breakdown break-down of regulatory federal and slats legislation by court decisions de-cisions is leading to a crisis In ths New York milk industry. Representatives of ths dsiry farmers farm-ers tried to get wholesalers to sign new contracts thst would have maintained the prices psid to producers. Ths big dealers signed up but, as was feared at the time, a chiseling minority of Independent dealer, has refused to play ball and a severe price wsr is In prospect Dairyman are up In arms at the threatened reduction in their income in-come and there is heard talk of a -milk strike- which would have a serious effect oa the New York metropolitan area. Insiders, how-ever, how-ever, do not believe thst such a strike is imminent The period of maximum milk production lies just ahead, from now until June, so thst ths farmers would be sacrificing their best sesson. Flush production in itself will tend to force milk prices down, so that the farmers' plight wtu presumably bs wbrse by June. That's when a real showdown is likely to develop, with repercussions repercus-sions far beyond New York. The federal government might take a hand. Recent hearings before ths temporary national economic committee com-mittee produced striking and as yet unpublished evidence about the monopolistic practices and profits of the big milk dealers-National dealers-National Dairy and Borden not only in New York, but all over the country. It wee claimed thst these practices are at the root of complaints from both farmers and consumers. Informed New Yorkers get 4 chuckle from reports of a Japanese Japa-nese campaign to persuade privets pri-vets owners of gasoline automobiles automo-biles to turn their esrs over to ths government as a patriotic gss-turs. gss-turs. It appears that ths owners havan't responded very well, despite de-spite rigid restrictions on ths use of their vehicles. One reason for their apathy is ths widespresd feeling among Jspansse who know whet is going on that ths army. If it is so anxious to conserve gasoKns, shouldn't have waited it burning Chinese cities when kerosene would have served the purpose just as wsiL Copyright, 1938, McClure Syndicate |